My Jewelry Supply Black Hole

I have a secret to share. I have a really bad habit of buying supplies that catch my eye, organising them into my many many boxes of beads and baubles and then doing nothing with them. Kind of like a black hole... for jewelry supplies.  Months ago I got a bulk order of stone cabochons.  They were and still are beautiful, and yet until two days ago I hadn't made anything with them.

Lately I've been trying to challenge myself.  For me this is wire wrapped rings.  They don't have an obvious beginning or end which my brain sometimes finds hard to incorporate into a design.  Having had some success using beads as a focal point I now set myself the challenge of coming up with a design that would set a stone in place.  No glue - that's cheating!  Just wire carefully wrapped to hold everything in place.

I ended up choosing a 10mm round labradorite cab for this project.  In my head my original thoughts were for a more angular design with corners above and below the stone.  However, when I got to wrapping the stone into place, the wire bundle just seems to flow so nicely around it that I had to go with it.  Here it is.  My first wire wrapped ring with a stone setting.

I had to wear it around for an entire day before I had convinced myself that the stone would actually stay in place.  Not because it felt loose or there were physical signs of it doing so, just because I couldn't believe my first attempt had been successful and actually looked good too!  I've decided to put this ring up for sale.  Though I enjoy making them, I'm not not a big ring wearer.  (Wearer?  I don't think that's an actual word, but I'm adding it to my personal dictionary).  Hopefully someone will get as much enjoyment out of wearing it as I did out of making.  I've also made a tutorial on how to make on of your very own if you're of the craftier persuasion which you can find in the tutorial shop.  I'm going to have to make a dent in my collection of stone cabs now and actually put them to good use.